Duck with an injured foot - amputation advised by the vet

[wbookmyer]

We have seven peking ducks that we bought last year, so they are about 10-11 months old.

One of them got bumblefoot, or at least what we thought was bumblefoot. We noticed that she was having trouble walking and her ankle was really swelled up. We noticed on a Friday night and had her in the vet that following Monday.

We put her on some antibiotics and on a topical ointment for two weeks and wrapped her foot.

After the two weeks we took her back to the vet and he did a few xrays. He said that according to the xrays her bone at the top of her outside digit was gone and he says that we should amputate the toe.

She is walking now and there is no more swelling, but still has a small reminder of the bump on the bottom of her foot - we are keeping her on the topical ointment with hopes that it will clear it up.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is it premature to take the toe? If they take the toe what will her quality of life be like?

The vet has never treated a duck before - most ducks in our area are bought for food purposes - not as pets. We could not find another vet who would even look at her.

Any thoughts, experiences, opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much!

 

[Kevin565]

. Have you noticed either of the tendons out of place? I personally feel that it seems premature to take the toe before looking into other explanations first.

 

[Amiga]

I am with Kevin565 on this. I don't quite follow the reasoning. Good to keep her on antibiotics to be sure you knock out the bacteria.

 

[wbookmyer]

Her tendons don't seem to be out of place - but I'm not 100% sure what/where they are on a duck and I can't find any photos to help me figure it out... I'm a new duck owner and until she got sick we've never had any problems.

I am very hesitant to have her toe removed!

When we looked at the xrays her outer toe looked like a small pea size section was gone, it was over where the bumblefoot blister/callous was on her foot.

I'm not completely convinced that her bone wasn't moved because of the combination of having her foot taped and the bump - which may have pushed the toe out of place.

I did buy a duck shoe which helps alleviate the compression.

Any other ideas would be appreciated!

 

[wbookmyer]

The vet is afraid that there is a bone eating bacteria that may be the cause.

BUT he isn't sure... this is his first duck patient.

I don't want her to get worse because I failed to act - and I don't want to jump the gun.

She's walking better and the swellings down.

We wanted to know if anyone had any experience with something like this.

As of right now having her toe removed is the last thing I want to do - that's why I'm here...

*Sigh*